Melbourne Royal Botanic Garden

We love gardens — English, Italian, American, and Australian. Gardens are one of the first places we visit exploring a new city. Formal gardens often have an interesting history going back to the founding of the city, often donated by wealthy families, royalty, or city fathers who want to create a legacy for future generations.

We’d enjoyed Sydney’s gardens during our first week in Australia and wanted to visit Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Garden. We were fortunate to have a Melbourne woman invite us for a Sunday walk in the Botanic garden.

Echinacea

We’d met Deb and Warwick a few days before at dinner in Eden on our three-day drive from Sydney to Melbourne. Warwick was returning to Canberra for work that week, but Deb wanted to show us the Royal Botanic Garden which was near our hotel and their home.

Deb and Warwick had both spent time in the U.S., studying and working. Deb lived in Massachusetts where she got her PhD at Amherst. One of their daughters is a doctor who started interning at a Melbourne hospital the week we arrived. Their second daughter wrote her thesis on American public policy. The family has a long-standing affection for America.

We spent a leisurely Sunday morning with Deb having coffee and pastries at a cafe in the Gardens sharing family stories, travel tales, politics, and love of books.

Sunday morning with Deb in the Royal Botanic Gardens

After buying a few books, cards, and flower seeds for our home garden at the gift shop, we strolled for a couple of hours, admiring the beautiful trees, flowers, plants, and ponds.

It was a warm and sunny Sunday, the Australian Open had started, but many Melbourners were enjoying the good weather and pastoral settings of the city’s beautiful gardens.

Rod Laver Arena, home of Australian Open along Yarra River

Ornamental Lake

Knuckle tree

The Royal Botanic Gardens are part of a complex that includes Kings Domain, Queen Victoria Gardens, and Alexandra Garden along the south bank of the Yarra river.

Yarra River

Bridge connecting Royal Botanic Garden to Alexandra Garden

St. Kilda Bridge crossing Yarra River into Melbourne

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Next: Adelaide — and kangaroos, emus, wallabies, and pandas

As many of you know, I also write mysteries and romantic suspense novels.

I recently published my first international thriller, Thirteen Days in Milan, which is available on Kindle as well as other ereaders, tablets, and smartphones.

I’m back in Europe for the summer to hire a translator and to research my next book which will also be a thriller based in Milan. I’ll be posting along the way from Milan, Stresa, Zurich and other locations.

I have a few posts on another blog, Anatomy of a Thriller, where I write about the process of researching and writing an international thriller. I’ll add more posts there as well.

Please share these links with writers or readers who might be interested.